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Politics of Mexico

 

             POLITICS OF MEXICO.
            
             Spain ruled Mexico for three centuries, administering a vast economic, .
             political, and religious empire in the interests of the imperial country, its .
             kings, and its representatives in North America. Colonial policy was designed .
             to extract wealth from New Spain (Mexico) and to limit possibilities for .
             Spaniards in the New World to benefit from agriculture, commerce, or .
             industry without at the same time benefiting Spain. It was also designed to .
             ensure commitment to the Roman Catholic religion.
             In 1810, however, a parish priest in central Mexico named Miguel Hidalgo .
             issued a rallying cry to a group assemble in a parish church in the town of .
             Dolores. He called for an end to Spanish misrule. At the head of a motley .
             band of rebels, he began the first of a series of wars of independence that .
             pitted rebels against the Spanish crown for eleven years. Despite the fact that .
             independence from Spain was recognized in 1821, Mexico struggled to create .
             a stable and legitimate government for decades thereafter (Grindle 382-383). .
             Mexico's political model theoretically has much in common with that of the .
             United States. As with the U.S. government, Mexico's government is divided .
             into three branches: executive, legislative, and judicial. In Mexico, however, .
             the executive branch dominates the other branches to such an extent that the .
             country effectively has a political system that is controlled by its president. .
             For most of the 20th century, only one political party, the government-.
             controlled Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI), played an influential role .
             in politics or in the decision-making process. After it was founded in 1929, the .
             government party monopolized most national political offices. The PRI did .
             not lose a senate seat until 1988 or a gubernatorial race until 1989. It lost the .
             presidency for the first time in 2000, when Vicente Fox of the National Action .


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